Red
Flags, a
production of the Baltimore Performance Kitchen at the Arena Players
had its final performance on Sunday. I was able to attend and woke
the next morning still thinking about the experience. The show
included music, dance, spoken word, video and audience engagement
that brought the viewers into the creation and conclusion of the
event. The production, a collaboration by Bashi Rose, LOVE the poet
and Vincent Thomas was commissioned by the Baltimore Performance
Kitchen, which is an organization that presents and creates free
theatre and dance performances that explore big questions in order to
incite meaningful exchanges with their audiences.

This
particular performance, as titled, was about moments and experiences
that are red flags, things that for you provide a moment that you
know not to be right. Experiences that force you to identify what
things in the world are unjust and encourage action. These moments
create an opportunity for you take up your red flag and stand with
dignity and defiance against the injustice that you have been witness
to. A collage of spoken word, music, film, dance and performance
illustrated individual moments of this. A young father needing to be
strong for his daughter, a man trying to protect the woman he loves
while at the same time struggling with his insecurity that she is
with another, a woman that doesn't want to sacrifice her creativity
for the sake of money, another woman whose family will not accept her
because of the gender of the person she loves.

These
are just a few examples of the moments investigated in the play.
After the performers presented their illustrations of red flags, the
viewers who had all been given red flags upon entrance to the theater
were asked to write their own. It was difficult for me to think of
one thing, one moment in time, one idea that was the catalyst for
what I believe in and what I work toward, there seeming to be so many
things that need people to stand up. I finally wrote about a time one
of my students, a high schooler was propositioned by a man on the
street and followed by him in his car when she refused. This was not
ok. This I knew was wrong and that something needed to be done about.
In thinking again about this experience years later I realize that
many of my red flags are related to my being a woman and the role of
sexuality in this culture. More specifically about being a woman in a
patriarchal society, where yes, we now have rights and freedoms that
were not given to women in prior historical eras, but where the
history of women's oppression can still be seen in the reflection of
how women are treated individually, in the media and in many
different capacities in society and especially reflected in how our
young women are treated. Also how sexuality in this society is
presented as a dichotomy, one or the other, inflexible when in truth
there are so many beautiful variations on how people love one
another.

Bringing
my own red flags into my experience of Red
Flags made
me very interested in the part LOVE the poet played on stage. She
shone in the performance, she was the voice of the collaborative. At
the onset of the play this worried me. To see a strong woman onstage
with two male performers I worried that she will be used, worn down
leaned on too heavily, objectified in some way. This worry was
completely unfounded. And the moment when LOVE the poet was uplifted
by Vincent Thomas, placed on a platform and given space to speak her
truth and share her story I saw the beautiful way that she was
supported, uplifted and given the space to shine by the other
performers.

Each
performer led a breakout session with the audience. Bashi Rose's
group created a sound piece, we are the heartbeat he said. LOVE the
poet identified three words with her group: Awareness, Culture and
Equality. Vincent Thomas' group (that I was in) created a dance of
movements that illustrated our own red flags. Each piece contributed
to a whole. This is how these three performers worked together on
stage. They each brought their own work, their own experience, their
own essence and together they created an amazing piece of work that
would have been impossible alone.

And
maybe this has everything to do with how we must address red flags.
We must identify them and then identify others to work with so that
together we can make the changes that we cannot make alone.